Sunday, May 13, 2018

262 - A dent in the plans with a dent in the gas tank

Regular readers who know me will know that it's been just over a week since my motorcycle accident (on May 3rd). After swerving to avoid being hit by a car driver who failed to stop when he should have, the bike (and I) took a tumble, resulting in a dented and dinged up bike and a compound fracture of the proximal humerus for me. So now my arm is going to be immobilized in a sling for another five weeks until the bone regrows and I can start working on rebuilding tendons and muscle strength.

Bicycle riding is too dangerous to do one-handed, and motorcycle riding is not an option until the bike gets fixed (and my arm heals). Which means that I'm once again limited to either public transport, relying on kind friends for rides, or "shanks's pony" (walking). Even the walking that I do do is not as comfortable or pain-free as I would like yet since the left arm gets shook up a little. So, I'm not getting the exercise that I'd like to and I'm not hiking and backpacking as much as I had originally planned. I can't even enjoy the T'ai Chi that I'd started recently (well, not without some adaptation on my part).

In terms of my weight loss recently, the bouncing around continued. At one point I'd reached 268 lbs before dropping to 260, then 262 lbs this morning. I'm still struggling to cut out the "fourth meal" after I return home from work. Simply not having anything in the fridge and cupboards seems to be the best strategy for me. I'm trying to stick with low carb meals but not always succeeding.

One thing (of several) that my arm injury has taught me is that I need to work on improving my core strength. I kind of already knew this, so a priority for the summer and especially the coming fall/winter will be a regular muscle-building and defining workout of some sort, with weights or other resistance exercises.